Suspending Debt Ceiling Is New Norm

Congress now routinely deals with the debt ceiling the same way a high school principal deals with a troublemaker – suspension.

The government can only borrow money up to a certain limit set by Congress, a level known as the debt ceiling. Congress in years past has voted to “raise” the debt ceiling, maybe by $400 billion or $800 billion or so, a level that used to be able to buy the government plenty of time to pay its bills before the measure had to be revisited.

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